Flower Garden
by Rawr it's Kizami
Summary: When push came to shove, she did worse than shove back; she didn't shove at all. She was going to show that pompous jerk who wasn't boss. He was going to force her to drop out of school like so many before her. He was the boss of Balamb Garden. Selfer.
1. Prologue: Super Selphie!

Disclaimer: I don't own any of the FFVIII characters or the Final Fantasy enterprise thingy, nor do I own the rights to "Boys Over Flowers."

Summary: In an elite school run by the four sons of influential families who call themselves the S4, Selphie Tilmitt of the working class finds it hard to fit in. First, she gets snubbed at by almost everyone. Then she gets tagged and bullied. The absolute worst is when she realizes she's in love with the jerk who tagged her.

Warning: I apologize beforehand if anyone's OOC.

The beginning is based off of the manga/drama "Hana Yori Dango" (Boys Over Flowers, weee!) 'cause, unfortunately, I'm not that brilliant. But it's mostly based off the Korean drama. Also I wasn't sure whether to put it under Romance/Drama or Romance/Humor (they're called dramas for a reason), so I opted for Humor. :s

Rated the way it is because **somebody** has an affinity for curse words.

Also, because it didn't fit in the summary, this is a **Selpher **or a **Selfer**, whatever you guys wanna call it. It also has hints of (I cannot for the life of me remember what the other strange names are) Irvine x Quistis and Zell x Selphie. I'm kind of undecided about whether or not to make this into a Squinoa, but we'll see!

Feel free to skip the prologue, it's not too important, I don't think.

**Flower Garden  
**Rawr It's Kizami

Prologue: Super Selphie

With her weapon deliveries tucked carefully in the rack behind her and a beaming smile plastered on her face, Selphie Tilmitt could not help but revel in the morning sunlight. Sure, things hadn't gone so smoothly that morning starting with the batteries of her alarm clock dying minutes before it were to ring, and later when she found her bicycle chain broken, but was she deterred?

Nope, nothing could stop Selphie's cheerful demeanor! Of course, she occasionally received the odd stare from onlookers as she rode by on her neighbor's eleven year old daughter's pink unicorn bike with glittering pastel tassels, but she would just look back at them with a stare of her own and stick her tongue out childishly. Up your nose with a rubber hose!

She wouldn't let those kinds of people get to her! If they wanted to pretend they were better than everybody else and above pink unicorn bikes, then let them, but she was not about to let them tell her that she had to, too!

As she pedaled by the glimmering gates of the elite Balamb Garden, a school which she knew she could never afford, Selphie couldn't help but turn her attention to the beautiful yet condescending structure before her as she did each time she passed.

A large, gleaming monstrosity of curves and edges loomed over the petite girl as if telling her, in the words of pop culture, "If you ain't got no money, take your broke ass home." Students dressed in elaborate navy blue uniforms with bright yellow accents strolled throughout the campus behind the silver fence, flaunting their mommies and daddies' money at her.

Well whatever, Selphie rolled her eyes and smiled to herself. She didn't need some fancy school to be happy. She was perfectly content going to her public school where financial standing didn't matter. Sneaking one last peek at the Garden, Selphie turned back to the road in front of her and narrowly dodged out of the way of a car. A parked car.

Her neon bike swerved onto the sidewalk where she stomped her feet down onto the cement and stopped. The brunette breathed a sigh of relief. She didn't know what she would have done if she had hit that car; nobody else she knew ever hit a parked car before, let alone two in the same week!

"OH MY RUBY DRAGON!" she cursed, causing some passerby to stare at her awkwardly as she grabbed behind her for a delivery tag with her free hand. Some delivery girl she made; she almost passed by without a second thought! If it weren't for that parked car, this Garden student would be missing his rapier.

Shaking her head and smiling at her own inattention, Selphie wheeled her bike around and pedaled onto the school grounds, ignoring the harsh comments and haughty looks she received. She glanced around at her surroundings with wide, twinkling eyes, completely caught off guard by its splendor; it all seemed so much more beautiful now that she was inside! The grass seemed greener, the trees appeared fuller, and even the cobblestone walkway looked shinier.

Finding a bike frame, she quickly parked the neon bicycle and grabbed the long leather case from the rack installed in the back of the bike. Her next challenge was to find this person. She wandered inside the main building and sighed at its luster; she took back all the bad things she had thought about it before. This school was so beautiful and grand that she couldn't imagine anything but well-mannered children of high-society residing within these walls.

"I knew he wouldn't last long," a boy was telling another female student as a group of people walked past her.

"Declan was always a weakling," another boy snickered.

Selphie tilted her head and snuck another look at the name tag on the dry-cleaning. That was him all right! She quickened her pace and frantically tapped the boy on the shoulder. He glanced at her with judgmental eyes that asked, "What could you possibly want?"

"Did you say Declan?" she asked. "Declan Adera?"

"Uh, yeah," he replied haughtily. "If you're looking for him, he's on the roof," he added with a smirk.

"Okey-dokey! Thanks a bunch!"

As the group of students shrugged at her working class presence and left the building, Selphie made her way up the stairs, taking two at a time. She giggled to herself, imagining a handful of gil as a grateful Garden student tipped her grandly, thanking her for biking all the way to his school and taking the time to deliver his sword personally.

-x-

Standing on the ledge of the roof with hundreds of his peers staring up at him with expectant yet glaring eyes, Declan Adera gazed down at them and wiped a droplet of blood from his cut forehead. His entire body screamed in pain at him, but the boy tried his hardest to ignore the dull, throbbing sensation pulsing throughout his limbs.

"This is what you want, right?" he shouted, poised to jump. Sighing sharply, he took a step.

"Weapons Upgrade!" Selphie announced, bursting through the door behind him, causing the battered man to pause in his steps and face his sudden hindrance. "That'll be fifty gil for the delivery, Mr. Adera!"

The student scoffed and turned away from her. "You can get the money from my parents after I'm dead."

"WHAT?" Selphie cried, unable to believe her ears and furiously stomping over to him with the upgraded rapier's case waving behind her. "Why do you want to die? You go to a nice school, you have parents who love you, and I bet you live a super-duper privileged life!"

"Hah!" he roared, gesturing to the ever-growing crowd of students below. "This isn't school. It's HELL!" he spat disdainfully.

"Excu-use me," the petite brunette argued, her free hand perched on her hip, "the real hell is outside."

He shook his head. It was painfully obvious to him that this girl was not of Garden. "Do you know who the S4 are?"

"No," she replied curiously. "Is it like a boy band?"

"Hardly," he told her, his toes dangling dangerously close to the edge. "They're like tyrants. They practically rule this school. Everyone follows whatever they say blindly." He paused and Selphie saw a sullen look flash across his face. "When they tag someone… that person gets bullied until they end up leaving." He shot her a meaningful look. "Or worse."

Selphie stopped and stared at the suicidal man before her as his words sunk in like a penny on melted ice cream. Suddenly, it all clicked in her head and she realized that it was because of this S4 that this man in front of her was about to jump off the three story structure.

"That's horrible!" she shouted, stomping her foot indignantly. "Are you going to let them get away with that? You should stand up for yourself! If this were my school, I wouldn't let them do whatever they wanted! This is so not cool!"

Declan smirked. "You're a good person. Your friends are lucky to have someone like you." He turned back to his awaiting audience, and suddenly stepped off the ledge.

The students gathered in the quad gasped in awe and surprise as Selphie lurched forward and grabbed hold of Declan before he could totally fall past the building. With her shoulders burning under the stress of his weight, she struggled with every fiber of her being and finally managed to pull the tattered student back onto the roof.

-x-

"You're a hero!" Mr. Subi, the blacksmith, announced as Selphie slumped in her seat.

It had been a week since the incident at Balamb Garden, and since then, Selphie Tilmitt had been dubbed the Super Girl of the Working Class. The media couldn't get enough of her; they would wait for her at her apartment, and they would stalk her all the way to work and school. The most damage, however, was to the Garden and its affiliations, so she heard. People had started to boycott the stores of its biggest supporters, namely those of the Almasy Group and Ma's Incorporated.

The worst, by far, were the demonstrations held in front of Garden. Upset citizens would picket in front of the school's pearly gates, harassing anyone who passed by to the point that instilled enough fear and frustration in both the students and faculty that no one dared to leave the campus.

"This is the latest story about you!"

Suddenly a newspaper was thrust into her face. Sighing, Selphie conceded and took hold of the paper. "What?" she exclaimed, slamming 'The Balamb Journal' onto the counter, narrowly missing the "Ring the bell ONCE for assistance" sign. "Do I really look like that?" She pointed a defiant finger at an unflattering photo in which her face was scrunched up with her eyebrows furrowed tightly together.

Mr. Subi glanced quickly at the picture. "Not usually."

"What do you mean by that?" Selphie pouted and crossed her arms.

"You were probably sneezing," he answered reluctantly as he slowly backed into the back of the store. "Stop staring at yourself and get these deliveries done!"

She groaned and stopped prodding at her eyebrows. Grabbing the pile of cases on the counter next to her, Selphie bounded over to the door and immediately regretted it; the entire sidewalk was filled with photographers and journalists, each desperately trying to catch a glimpse of her.

"Ms. Tilmitt!" they called, waving recorders and microphones and cameras in her face. "Can we get an interview with you?"

"What do you think of all these demonstrations?"

"How do you feel about Balamb Garden now?"

-x-

Headmaster Cid Kramer sighed sharply and begrudgingly turned off the television. So much damage had been done after just a week, and his students were suffering for it; the demonstrators at the gate stopped anyone they could get their hands on, especially those going in and out of the Garden. For that week, his students were stuck at school.

He recalled having Edea inform him of one of the newer students crying in the hallway because she couldn't go home that weekend like she always did. He wouldn't have minded as much if they only targeted the school, but to involve his innocent students was another matter entirely.

"What do we do now?" he muttered, holding his head in his hands and rubbing his temples.

"Do you know why all this is happening?" Edea inquired, holding up a hand to silence him when Cid perked up his head. "They're ignorant. They don't really understand the situation."

"What do you mean?"

Mrs. Edea Kramer sighed. As strong as she appeared on the outside, she was wracked with worry on the inside. "They know that it was an attempted suicide, and the reason they're angry is because they think it was Garden's fault."

"So what should we do?"

She sighed again. "There's only one thing we can do."

-x-

"Congratulations, Selphie!"

Holding the phone a foot from her ear, Selphie grimaced. Her parents had called ten minutes ago to tell her that Balamb Garden was offering her a full scholarship and how she would be crazy to say no to something like that, and, moreover, would be much cheaper attend, as irony would have it, than her current school since she could stop paying for that stupid apartment.

"Besides, honey," her mother's voice continued, "the rich and powerful families would KILL to have their kids go to that school! And here you are being offered not only attendance, but FREE attendance!"

"But, mom-"

"They have festivals and a farewell ball at the end of the year," her mother told her in a singsongy tone.

Selphie immediately sat up. Her mother really did know her. She'd always wanted to plan, or at least be a part of, a festival, and she'd never attended a ball before… Maybe she would have to reconsider her hasty decision.

-x-  
(To be continued.)

This is just the prologue, so that's why no one besides Selphie has been introduced yet. Never fear though! I hope you guys like it! I don't see many AU fics around though, so I'm kind of… worried? I'm not sure if people will like it. :s

Tell me what you think! 'Cause if I find that it's not too popular with the public, then maybe I won't continue and I'll have to set my creative (which is pretty uncreative) gears whirring again!


	2. Garden Life

Just a quick word of warning: the first couple of chapters is mostly character development. The REAL romantic aspects happen in like… Chapter 5? Well, slightly in Chapter 4.

And yeah, I guess you could say it's a side character story, haha.

**Flower Garden  
**Rawr It's Kizami

Chapter One: Garden Life

Selphie fidgeted in her steps and pulled at the yellow ascot tied as a loose accent around her neckline. She felt so very uncomfortable in her new uniform, almost to the point of uckiness. Everything felt foreign to her, like all the other students were speaking a language that only she could not understand.

She was thankful for one thing, and it was that, being Sunday, the school was emptier than usual. After the drama with the Garden had unfolded and she accepted their scholarship offer, the demonstrators had ceased their tirade outside the gates, finally presenting the students with the opportunity to go home, a chance that the majority of them jumped at.

She hung her head slightly as she walked, trying to avoid the judgmental stares she received. All the girls looked so beautiful and perfect with their hair styled perfectly in lovely halos around their features and their makeup done perfectly on their delicate faces. _They would look better,_ Selphie thought to herself,_ if they would only stop glowering at me!_

Finally, Selphie stopped in front of her new dorm room. A slight pout had found its way onto her face as her hand hovered above the keypad. Even the door looked better than her old apartment's, so she could only imagine how ornate the inside would be, and, ohhh, what was that four digit code again?

She wracked her brain. Did it start with a three? Yes! She was sure it was a three! Or was it an eight? …Five maybe? Well, there was definitely a three in there somewhere. Maybe it was eight-zero-three-six? Selphie shrugged her slender shoulders. It was worth a shot, and what was the worst that could happen?

With her tongue sticking out of the side of her mouth in deep concentration, she slowly entered the four digit code. For a few seconds, nothing happened.

Then the light turned red.

And her keypad let out a blaring buzz, causing the students around her to look on with suspicion and confused neighbors to peek their heads out into the hallway curiously.

"Um, everything's fine!" Selphie yelped meekly, holding her hands up defensively. "I'm just new here!"

Accepting that as a legitimate reason, the students returned to their own businesses as the brunette breathed a sigh of relief before turning her attention back to the evil evil keypad. Maybe it was three-zero-eight-six? Yes, that had to be it! She shifted her eyes around cautiously, not wanting the damn thing to gain everyone's attention for a second time.

As soon as the hallway cleared of students, which, surprisingly, didn't take very long, Selphie swiftly entered the second code into her keypad and waited with anxious eyes focused intently on the light.

It suddenly flashed green.

"Booyaka!" the petite girl cheered, jumping at least a foot into the air and pumping a triumphant fist. When she landed, Selphie immediately glanced around her and saw a pair of wide, blue eyes stare back at her. "Take a picture, it'll last longer!" she told the reading student playfully as she pulled her door open.

Bouncing into her new dorm room, she was quickly overcome with awe as the door slid shut behind her. It was humble, but nevertheless still exquisite compared to her former living arrangement, and there lay her worn luggage in front of the newly sheeted poster bed. ("That one suitcase is all you brought?" the bellboy had sneered. That one suitcase was all she needed to fit everything she owned! Never mind that this school had a bellboy!)

Selphie squealed with delight; maybe attending Balamb Garden wouldn't be so bad after all!

-x-

Selphie sighed and continued her walk through the campus. She had been walking for the past half hour and all she had seen were the dorm building and half of the first floor of the main building. She suddenly paused for a second; she had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Then her stomach let out a low grumble.

She immediately realized that she had completely missed breakfast that morning due to her procrastinated packing. Upon a hasty decision to find the cafeteria next, the brunette quickly made her way into the front foyer, and was instantly barricaded by a large group of students gathered by the front door.

"I saw the helicopter land outside!" a feminine voice amongst the crowd squealed joyously. "They're here!"

"You know," one of the male students in front that Selphie, due to her small stature, could not see, boasted proudly, "There's only two of these necklaces in the world, and I've got one. You know who has the other? Seifer Almasy."

"No way!" another male voice gasped in surprise.

Confused, Selphie tilted her head and started up the stairs for a better view on the second-floor landing. Whatever everyone was waiting so watchfully for piqued her curiosity terribly. Leaning against the railing with her chin rested against her hand, the slender girl sighed and allowed her mind to wander. She wondered what everyone could be waiting for; was today special somehow? Her eyes widened wistfully as the image of her all time favorite band, Pandamona, bursting through the front doors of her new school appeared in her mind.

As though on cue, the large double doors suddenly flew open. Selphie perked up and watched expectantly for some sort of celebrity to enter. To her dismay, four guys waltzed into the building. The entire group of students below her instantly came alive in a cacophony of delightful squeals and uproarious cheers.

Selphie could not, for the life of her, understand what could make four normal (if not wealthy) students hold such a power over the student body. To her, they looked like regular boys; two blonds and two brunets. The only remarkable thing about the small posse was that there was nothing similar about any of them; the substantially shorter blond had a unique tattoo adorned on his face, and one of the brunets had a much longer mane while the other's expression showed considerably less excitement than his comrades'. The latter of the brunets seemed familiar to Selphie, as though she had seen him somewhere, but at the moment, it was lost on her.

She let out a small giggle. At the way all the students fawned over the very presence of those four boys, maybe there should have been a glamour-shot type of backlighting when they entered.

"You," a deep voice from the first floor rumbled, gaining Selphie's attention.

The taller blond who had entered ahead of the other three was looking, or glaring, she couldn't really tell which, at one of the boys crowded at the front.

"Me?" the boy yelped, quivering in fear. Selphie recognized his voice as belonging to the boy who had been boasting about owning the same necklace as someone named Seifer.

The blond lowered his right hand to the hilt of what she assumed to be a sword on his left side. There was a flash of light and a small snap of metal clashing on metal, and, suddenly, he was holding a gunblade against the student's neck.

As the necklace snapped in half and clattered to the floor, the student, who had been frozen in fear, visibly paled despite his lack of physical injury. His eyes slowly rolled to the back of his head and his body went limp as his friend struggled to support his weight.

The blond smirked at the fainted boy and sheathed his weapon. Apparently he hadn't been too keen on the idea of being similarly accessorized as a common student.

From her vantage point, Selphie frowned in disgust. How could he just do something like that to another person? It was painfully obvious that the boy idolized him, and what did he get in return? A trip to the infirmary.

"What a meanie," she muttered. "He's crazy." After a moment of contemplation, she vocalized her thoughts out of frustration, "They're all crazy! Why didn't anyone stand up for that boy?"

"NEGATIVE," a voice stated in an authoritative tone behind her, causing Selphie to whirl around. In front of her stood a white-haired girl with a muscled student by her side. "NEW," the girl continued in the same tone, "UNDERSTAND. NOT."

"Yeah, ya know," the largely built man beside her agreed, "The S4, they rule this school. They're like, ya know, our overlords."

"INCORRECT," the white-haired student argued. "NOT. OVERLORDS. PRINCES."

"Those are the same things," the dark-skinned man said with an inflection at the end making it sound more like a question than a statement. "It just means they're in charge, ya know?"

With a defiant look on her face, Selphie rebelliously crossed her arms. "I'm not afraid of them," she told the two hotly. "They're just people. Who are you anyway? Their lapdogs?"

Unimpressed, the girl refused to withdraw and instead, gave Selphie an ever-so-slightly smug look. "DISCIPLINARY," she said with a slightly haughty voice. "FUJIN. RAIJIN," she threw her associate a nod in his direction, "COMMITTEE."

"I'm a King Bee, ya know," Raijin added without hesitation. "And Fuu here's a Queen Bee."

"MAKE. NO. SENSE," Fujin argued, giving the heavyset man a swift kick in the shins. "NO. KING. BEE."

"But, Fujin," he continued as he hobbled on one leg and held onto the other in pain, "I can't be a QUEEN bee, ya know."

"JUST. BEE."

"That ain't fair! I'm just as much a part of this group as you, ya know!"

As the rather comical scene unfolded before her, the idea of sneaking away crept into Selphie's mind. As long as Fujin and Raijin were distracted by each other, they would never notice that she was missing! Genius!

"OW! Fuu, that hurts, ya know!"

Raijin grabbed his other shin as he hobbled on the other with Fujin looming over his pitiful figure ominously. Selphie took this as her cue to disappear. She turned around grinning mischievously and prepared to sprint down the steps, but as the small girl took her first step, she felt someone tug at the back of her collar. With a high-pitched squeak, she whirled around and found herself staring into Fujin's narrowed eye. The girl meant business.

"CAREFUL. YOU. SAY."

"Yeah," Raijin agreed behind her, rubbing his still sore shins, "You better watch what ya say or you'll be sorry, ya know."

"BE. WATCHING."

With a gesture pointing from her eye to Selphie's, Fujin turned around and shoved Rajin in the opposite direction, leaving Selphie alone. She stuck her tongue out and made a juvenile face at their backs. Associates, lapdogs, they were all the same but with different names. Sighing, the brunette knew that the so-called Queen Bee (and King Bee) would be watching her from now on. Fujin had told her just that from what she understood of the girl's one-word speech pattern. Disciplinary Committee. She had to giggle at that. As if the S4 weren't disciplining enough.

Her stomach grumbled again. With all the commotion that had lasted for all of five minutes, the starving girl had forgotten about her hunger. Glancing at her surroundings, Selphie quickly decided to finish going down the first floor hall, a plan she had concluded upon before being distracted by the S4's grand entrance.

The cafeteria, however, was much emptier than she had thought. She wasn't quite sure what she had expected for a school such as this, but certainly she had anticipated more than five people. Still in disbelief about the lack of hungry students, Selphie made her way to the ladies in hairnets behind the counter and glanced up at the prices.

Her mouth hung open in shock; the least expensive item on the menu was a hot dog, which was fifty gil (the price for ONE of her own deliveries at her former job!), and a simple bottle of water was twenty. She dejectedly pulled out her yellow Chocobo wallet from her jacket pocket. At least she knew she had the fifty gil (and NOT from Mr. Adera who had inadvertently received his delivery FREE of charge), and since there was a mini-refrigerator in her dorm, she now planned on making weekly trips to the market for some dorm-made food.

"One hot dog, please!" she requested cheerily.

"Sorry, we're all out of those," the surprisingly dressed cafeteria worker answered in a supremely bored voice.

"What?" Selphie whined, unable to believe her ears. "How? There's like five people in here!"

"Mr. Dincht comes every morning and purchases our entire stock."

Despondently, Selphie thanked the cafeteria worker and sullenly left the lunch room as several students stepped inside. She had all even she could take in one day, and it wasn't even noon yet. Now all Selphie wanted to do was find a place to relax that didn't require her to walk all the way back to the dorm building. What else could she do in unfamiliar territory? She started to wander, letting her legs take her in whatever direction.

Not long after, she found herself on the alfresco stairway in the west wing. Finally, a place where she could be alone! Selphie rushed to the railing and let out a very uncharacteristic groan. As much as she wouldn't admit it, Selphie Tilmitt was downright frustrated with the way this school worked! Or lack thereof, seeing as how the faculty allowed four rich boys to influence the entire student body! When they had entered, she half-expected someone to genuflect at their feet!

"Stupid, stupid, stupid S4!" she vented, stomping her feet. "What does the S stand for anyway? STUPID?"

Suddenly, she heard a strange strangled sound, as though someone were choking. She searched wildly around for the source, but saw no one. When she heard it again, it suddenly hit her that whoever it was must be on the stairs above her somewhere. Determined to save whatever poor soul had unfortunately choked on their food, Selphie rushed up the stairs, and nearly bowled over a blond sitting on the steps on the floor above.

"Sorry!" she yelped as she helped straighten him up.

The blond grabbed at his throat, his eyes pleading for her to DO something other than sit him up, because his posture wasn't exactly the most important thing on his mind as his face turned an interesting shade of blue. Selphie's emerald eyes immediately flashed with recognition as she gave his back a firm slap.

A rather large chunk of food flew out of his mouth and down over the railing in front. A loud scream could be heard, soon followed by another voice shouting, "What the HELL is that?"

"Whew!" the blond breathed, leaning back against the steps after the color returned to his face. "Thanks for that! By the way, the name is SeeD 4," he told her with a chuckle, "if you're gonna rant against us, you might as well get the name right."

"Oh, is THAT what it stands for?" Selphie asked in sarcastic bitterness. Just then, his words hit her and her eyes widened in complete surprise. She scanned his face for any hint that he was even remotely kidding, but when she took sight of the tattoo winding from his temple, she knew that he wasn't. "You… you're?"

He nodded and flashed her a gleaming smile. "Yup. Zell Dincht."

"Selphie Tilmitt," she greeted, smiling for the first time since she had successfully guessed her dorm code. "You seem normal," she added abruptly, instantly taken aback by what she had said and covered her mouth with her hands ashamedly. "I didn't mean it like that! Well, I did kind of mean it like that…" She fiddled with her hands. "I think… But it wasn't supposed to sound so mean."

"I know exactly what you mean," he laughed, clearly amused by Selphie's words. "We're a weird group. We almost have nothing in common, except that we're all the richest guys in school."

"But that guy this morning," she said sulkily, not particularly pleased at the memory, "he was such a meanie-face!"

"Oh yeah." Zell's smile faded. "That was Seifer. He's an ass."

Selphie frowned. "Yeah, I see that. Are the others buttheads too?"

"Well…" He shifted his gaze upward and tapped a hotdog thoughtfully against his cheek. "Squall isn't so bad, but that's mostly because he doesn't talk much, and Irvine… he's the stereotypical ladies' man."

With her eyes glued to the hotdog in his hand, Selphie could feel the same painfully empty feeling in her stomach and, soon after, her tummy let out a low growl. Her cheeks flushed with embarrassment as beside her, Zell laughed and thrust another hotdog in her face. Her eyes twinkling with delight, she gratuitously accepted the generous offer.

"Wai do yew hab so much?" Selphie asked between bites, her mouth full of hotdog.

"I always buy all the hotdogs first thing in the morning," he told her proudly before taking a bite himself (the unquestionably largest bite Selphie had ever seen). "Badamb's hotdawgs awe da best!"

Selphie nodded. She couldn't argue with him there!

The only thing that gave her more relief than Zell's hotdog salvation was the solace in knowing that not all Garden students were pompous jerks.

-x-  
(To be continued.)

Firstly, yes, I know, the GF is spelled Pandemona, but I just thought Pandamona would be kind of like a cutesy-twist of a band name. Sounds like something Selphie would like, right? Also, I'm aware that not all of what I described is what Balamb Garden looks like… So it's not architecturally correct (it's not exactly the swirly, circle style it's supposed to be… OR IS IT?), sorry! I haven't played the game in a while (though after writing this, it does make me want to play it again).

Does it seem kind of weird that Fujin and Raijin are the only ones in the Disciplinary Committee? Maybe I'll expand on how that came to be later… Well, I was gonna have them have like a leader type figure and then the three of them would be the stereotypical group of mean girls… but I have plans for Rin-Rin and Quisty.

By the way, I advise against slapping someone on the back when they're choking! That's a big no-no! (waggles finger) But I've read in some places that giving a firm slap between the shoulder blades does help, I, however, am unconvinced. :s To each their own, I suppose.

Let me know what you guys think! Is it good? Bad? Ehhh? Thumbs up? Down? Critiques? Flames? Anything is welcome!


	3. StupiD 4

**Thanks to everyone who reviewed! I'm glad you guys like it! **This is a Thanksgiving Day update, haha. Happy Turkey Day, all! Black Friday tomorrow! Yayzers!

**Flower Garden  
**Rawr It's Kizami

Chapter Two: StupiD 4

With her high-spirits renewed, Selphie excitedly bounded down the hallway. That hotdog really hit the spot! She wasn't hungry anymore, but she sure was thirsty. As she headed for the cafeteria once again, the petite girl smiled broadly, ignoring the groups of shallow students she passed by.

They might be okay with the way the school worked, but was Selphie? Most definitely, super-duper-mega-trooper NOT! She still held resentment for the S4 (for that tall one especially), but after having met Zell, she was certainly feeling much better and had decided that she would give the group a chance. With any luck, the two brunets wouldn't be half as bad as that dumb blond.

At the cafeteria, Selphie purchased one bottle of water for twenty gil, leaving her with a mere thirty in her choco-wallet. _Everything's too expensive here_, she thought sullenly to herself as she found an empty table. The cafeteria had filled considerably since her last visit an hour ago and, out of the corner of her eye, she could see Fujin and Raijin sitting at their table eyeing her; specifically, Fujin was eyeing her, and Raijin was thoroughly enjoying his gourmet lunch of filet mignon while glancing in her general direction from time to time.

Selphie made a face at them when they weren't looking and continued to sip her water. She was going to ignore them, no matter what it took! Let them stare! She kept telling herself that she didn't mind, but in actuality, she did. It made her somewhat self-conscious, and she shifted in her seat uncomfortably.

"Hi!" a chipper voice greeted before a raven-haired girl sat in the seat across from Selphie. "Are you new here? I didn't mean to startle you! I'm Rinoa!"

"I'm Selphie!" she replied cheerfully. "How did you know about me being new?"

"Because you were sitting alone," Rinoa answered. "I usually sit alone, too. A lot of these people practically grew up together, so it's not exactly easy to make friends."

"Oh, are you new, too?" Selphie queried, her finger circling around the open lip of her water bottle subconsciously.

"Mhmm." Rinoa nodded and leaned her cheek against her hand. "I recently transferred here from Deling. My father," she said the word disdainfully, "is General Caraway."

Selphie gasped and nearly toppled over her water. She was sitting in the cafeteria sharing a conversation with _the_ General Caraway's daughter!

Rinoa laughed at her surprised expression. "Don't be so shocked! Geez, it's not like he's President Loire or anything."

"That's it!" Selphie gasped suddenly, despite the strange look her new friend gave her. "That's why that guy looked familiar! He's Sir Laguna's son!"

"You really are new!" Rinoa chuckled, hiding her mouth behind the back of her hand. "Everyone knows that the S4's Squall is his son. Almost all the S4 are practically royalty."

Selphie sighed and rested her hands over her bottle. "I figured. I still don't get it though. Am I missing something? Cause I think everyone knows something that I don't."

"Selphie, Selphie, Selphie," Rinoa cooed, shaking her head slowly. "Do you even know who they are?" When Selphie shook her head with a childishly confused look on her face, she continued. "Have you heard of Ma's?"

"Duh!" the petite brunette exclaimed, beaming enthusiastically. "Who hasn't? They only make the BEST pies ever!"

"Zell Dincht, that's the guy with the tattoo on his face," Rinoa explained, though Selphie already knew him quite well, "he's the heir. His mom is the face of the company. Ma."

Selphie was taken aback. In the entire hour she had spent with Zell on the staircase, she felt such a strong connection with him, like they had practically been best friends all their lives, and he had never once mentioned that he was affiliated with Ma's! She slumped a little in her seat. It almost felt as though she hardly knew him anymore.

"And Irvine Kinneas, the one with the long hair," Rinoa continued, taking no notice of Selphie's sudden disheartened spirit, "he was raised by his grandfather, this big firearms specialist who owns the biggest art gallery in Galbadia."

Selphie, in fact, had heard of the said art gallery, though she had never had the opportunity to visit it herself. Supposedly, this Kinneas Museum of Art was originally built to house the extremely extravagant amount of pottery belonging to his grandfather. The most popular piece, so she heard, was the sculpture of Laguna Loire in his role in "The Sorceress Knight."

"You already know about Squall," Rinoa went on, counting on her fingers the number of S4 members she had explained. "So that leaves Seifer Almasy."

"Almasy?" Selphie yelped. "As in the Almasy Group?"

When Rinoa nodded, her assumption was confirmed. She just couldn't believe it! The Almasy Group was the biggest corporation in all of Gaia! They made virtually everything and were practically everywhere, from cars to department stores. Even then, that wasn't enough to appease their thirst for influence; they owned sports teams, museums, foundations, and youth centers all over, everything that Selphie considered to be the toys of the rich.

"That's just way not fair!" Selphie blurt out. "He's such a meanie snot-head! He's lucky that he's so blessed! He should be helping people, not scaring students so they'll listen to him!"

Rinoa shrugged. "You could say he's just a bored rich kid."

"Even then!" Selphie pouted and crossed her arms indignantly. "That is so lame!"

-x-

Selphie woke the next morning at six A.M. sharp, though she really set the alarm for 5:30 so that she could hit the snooze button several times before actually rising. Sometimes it really frustrated her that she had to wake so early to style her hair, but a glance in the mirror quickly reminded her otherwise. She couldn't possibly attend her very first class at Balamb Garden with hair that looked like a Thrustaevis's nest.

Within an hour and half, Selphie Tilmitt was ready for her first class. Nodding her approval at her reflection, she left her dorm and made her way to the main building in high spirits.

Unfortunately, the class was super unexciting and Selphie gazed into space for most of the time. Not only was the material extremely technical and boring, but the entire class was separated into cliques, leaving her next to the window by herself. When the class ended, she gathered up her belongings in a rush and was ready to leave right away.

"Ms. Tilmitt," the instructor, a charismatic young blonde woman, halted Selphie at the door and motioned for her to come closer to the desk. "Are you having a hard time adjusting to a new school? Or did you prefer watching the sky to my lecture?"

"No, no, it wasn't that at all, Instructor Trepe," Selphie stammered. Her first day and she already got in trouble. Bummer! "You were right, I'm just finding it super hard to fit in around here. Everyone's friends already!"

"I'm not surprised," Instructor Trepe stated thoughtfully, though Selphie could tell she knew that she found the class boring. "The cliques here are like the public school's on steroids."

"The S4 seems like the king of cliques," the petite brunette said, growing interested when a curious glint flashed across her instructor's eyes.

"As long as you don't do anything to displease them, you should be fine."

Selphie couldn't stifle the disapproving frown that crept onto her face. It seemed to her that whatever advice people offered her about the StupiD 4, it was always the same message; be careful of what you say.

-x-

"I wanna join the Garden Festival Committee," Selphie chirped excitedly as she and Rinoa walked through the halls. The two had just finished their lunch (Rinoa had the Special from the cafeteria, which was a creamy penne pasta, and Selphie had a sandwich she made in her dorm that morning) and were wandering through the school aimlessly.

"Oh, I'll show you the quad, then!" Rinoa agreed, nodding and taking hold of Selphie's arm to haul her down the hallway.

As soon as they turned the corner to the foyer, they were cut off by a large group of students huddled together. The two girls exchanged looks and, due to their curiosities getting the better of them, squeezed their way to the side for a better view of whatever was developing; the trip to the quad would just have to wait!

"A-and, s-s-s-so," a girl in braids stuttered, her arms outstretched and holding a heart-shaped cake, "I h-hope that you'll r-return my f-feelings and accept th-this cake I made f-for y-you…"

Confused as to why this girl was so flustered, Selphie's eyes traveled from the offered cake (which she thought was oh so super-mega delicious looking) to the recipient. Her jaw nearly dropped when she saw the familiar statuesque blond standing there with three equally familiar students behind him; Seifer.

Selphie almost gagged; after what she had witnessed yesterday, she wasn't sure what to expect, but, at the same time, she knew it wasn't going to be good. Despite that, she remained wistful for the girl and hoped that he had at least an ounce of decency within him; she was so brave for putting her feelings on the line like that! The very least he could do was accept the cake!

Seifer stared at the student in front of him blankly. Behind him, Zell anxiously shifted his weight from foot to foot as he chewed on a bright, red stick of licorice. He wanted to check if the library had 'Goodbye Pupurun' already! If only this girl wasn't taking so long! Next to him, Squall sighed tiresomely and leaned against the railing next to him. Irvine, on the other hand, was quite interested in the scene in front of him; if that girl, who was pretty cute, needed any comforting, he might get another notch to put on his bedpost.

With a sly smirk, Seifer reached out and took the offered cake into his hands. In the front of the crowd, Fujin let out a barely audible gasp and Raijin, next to her, stared at the cake hungrily. The crowd erupted into hushed whispers, and Rinoa sighed heartily, holding a hand to her heart.

The braided girl beamed brightly and squealed delightfully as the cake was taken from her. Selphie, however, was unconvinced; as much as she wanted to be happy for her, she just could not believe that this was the same pompous buffoon from yesterday!

Suddenly, with that same mischievous smirk on his face, Seifer flicked the bottom of the cake up and smashed the pastry into the girl's face. Fujin leered at the scene with a smug look, while Rinoa turned her head away, disappointed at the turn of events. The girl, feeling intensely embarrassed, pushed and shoved her way through the crowd so she could run to the sanctity of her dorm.

As the crowd dispersed and the S4 started to move, Selphie refused to move from her spot in the middle of the walkway, and Seifer found himself blocked by a girl who grew just short of his shoulders. He cocked an eyebrow at her, as if saying "If you have something to say, say it._ I dare you._"

Seething with anger, Selphie stood her ground. She would not be discouraged by his stare! She would point an indignant finger at him and tell him the error of his ways, prodding his chest with each word. She couldn't just stand by and watch him torment another human being! No, if anything, he had to be punished for what he had done, even if it were only an earful of lecture and nothing more. She huffed. After all, the _very_ least he could have done was accept the cake!

Seifer, however, was growing tired of waiting for this small blockade to move. "Well?" he growled in an impatient voice.

Selphie opened her mouth. Oh crap. Her speech, which she had so perfectly constructed in her head, refused to come out! She swallowed nervously and uttered a small, "Never mind," as she stepped to the side.

The towering blond rolled his eyes and the S4 continued to pass her, with Zell flashing her a smile and a wink, as if he knew what she had planned in her mind.

"Come on, Selph," Rinoa urged, tugging on her friend's arm quietly. "I'll show you the quad."

-x-

With classes done for the day, Selphie enthusiastically lapped at the soft-serve ice cream Rinoa had so generously purchased for them in celebration for Selphie being accepted onto the Garden Festival Committee.

The brunette felt, however, that even this ice cream was too extravagant for her achievement; there were three people, including her, on the committee, with Instructor Trepe being the ever absent advisor and a careless student as president. If she really wanted a festival everyone would remember, she would have to work extra hard!

"Oh no," Rinoa whined as a droplet of ice cream dripped onto her leg. She jumped up from her seat on stage and suggested to Selphie, "Let's get some napkins."

Selphie nodded and bounced off her seat. In hindsight, she realized it probably would have been a good idea to get the napkins when they got their ice cream, but it was too late for that, so the two girls started making their way to the quad exit when Rinoa suddenly stopped.

"What is it?" Selphie asked.

"I left my bag," Rinoa groaned as she started to turn. "Hold on, I'll go get it!"

Once she took her first step, she clumsily tripped over her feet and stumbled to the ground. Rubbing her bruised knee, Rinoa slowly stood up as she eyed her spilt ice cream. The creamy frozen treat was mushed all over a shiny black boot. She felt her heart race nervously as she tentatively raised her eyes to meet the face of a very unamused Seifer Almasy.

"I'm so sorry!" Rinoa blurt out, standing up despite the slight burning sensation on her knees. "I didn't mean to! It was an accident, I tripped! I'll do anything, please! I'll clean your shoe! I'll do whatever it takes for you to forgive me!"

He smiled smugly, a smirk which Selphie came to hate. "Lick my shoe clean."

Her face supporting the angriest expression she could muster, Selphie stepped next to the abashed Rinoa and glared up at the S4 tyrant. "Can't you just accept her apology? It's not like she fell on purpose! Stop being such a poohead!"

Well wasn't that interesting. It wasn't everyday that someone stood up to the S4, and Seifer had never been called a 'poohead' before. He turned his glare onto her. "The fuck do you want? Mind your own damn business."

"She's my friend," Selphie argued. "And I'm not going to let someone like you treat her like that!"

He smirked impishly at her. "Fine. You lick it."

"Uh, what?" Selphie stammered. She looked at Rinoa for help, but the raven-haired girl was busily avoiding eye contact. Her eyes darted to Zell, who was chewing desperately on his cookie. She had no one but herself. She swallowed.

"Well, little girl?" Seifer growled.

"My name is Selphie," she corrected, raising her chin defiantly to compensate for their severe height difference. "It's not 'little girl.'"

"Whatever," he countered, lowering his face to glower at her. "If _you_ lick it, then I'll forget about this."

Hesitantly, Selphie begrudgingly lowered herself into a bow, her anger still seething, especially when she glanced up and saw his pleased expression.

In an instant, she thrust her ice cream upwards and into the poohead's face with newfound conviction. Caught completely off guard, Seifer staggered backwards and fell on his back onto the floor. She wasn't about to let some guy tell her what to do just because he had money!

"When you bully my friends," Selphie continued, trying to appear as authoritative as possible, "You make it my business. I can't stand rich buttheads like you who pick on people just because you have money!"

With the ice cream pasted all over his face, Seifer glared up at his new target.

-x-  
(To be continued.)

So, what do you guys think? I feel kind of like I smushed a lot of stuff into this one chapter. I also feel like my writing style is SUPER inconsistent. Blahhh.

In chapter three, the S4 is gone into a little more depth! And you'll see just how not-bright a certain leader can be sometimes…


	4. Declaration of War

**Flower Garden  
**Rawr It's Kizami

Chapter Three: Declaration of War

Seifer Almasy was not happy. He was not amused, not pleased, and certainly got going to forget what had happened in the quad that afternoon. That preppy, new girl was starting to seriously grate on his already thin nerves, and she had only been at Balamb Garden for, what? Two days? LESS?

He slammed a heavy fist onto the granite countertop. His shoes, his uniform, his face, even his hair had had that sticky ice cream on it, and nobody, absolutely _NOBODY_, touched his hair. It had taken him nearly an hour in the shower to get the scent of vanilla out of his blond locks. For Hyne's sake, he didn't want to smell like a damn _chick_! He was going to get back at that little girl, and when he did, he would make sure she would never see it coming.

"…And then, that pigtailed girl told me they still didn't have it!" Zell exclaimed, his hands waving around in an exaggerated gesture as he recalled his story to a disinterested Irvine next to him. "I've been waiting over a month for 'Goodbye Pupurun!' Can you believe this crap?"

"As a matter of fact, I can," Irvine muttered in his Southern drawl as he helped himself to another cupcake. Shortly after Seifer had literally threw the cake back into the poor girl's face, another cute girl had wistfully presented Irvine with a plate of handmade cupcakes, which he graciously accepted, never mind that he had forgotten to ask her name after he had told her he would call her sometime.

Squall eyed Seifer curiously as Irvine and Zell, who was still complaining about that book, sat lazily on the couch in the lounge next to their private suite's mini-kitchen. Though the four of them sometimes didn't get along, they had grown up together and were practically all each other had since then. For as long as each of them could remember, they had been alone, coupled with nannies and boarding schools while their busy parents were off on business. Aside from Zell for the first several years of his life, the S4 never really had anyone who genuinely cared about them, until they met each other.

Zell had, as Squall believed, perhaps the best childhood out of all of them. His mother gave him love and care since the day he was born, despite that their living situation wasn't exactly the best. For the first four years of his life, he was raised in a tiny, rundown studio apartment in Balamb, until his mother, Ma Dincht, had started a small bakery in her home. Once she started to cater, first to family run coffee shops and eventually to large, upscale restaurants, her business really took off the ground, and Ma's Incorporation, which Zell called Ma's Favorite Child, was born. She started to spoil him with everything she couldn't afford before, but in order to keep this rich lifestyle, she started to work more and he scarcely saw her. By the time he was seven, she was hardly home at all. To an adolescent young boy in need of his Ma's love, he felt abandoned and forgotten.

Irvine, on the other hand, never knew his parents. From the ripe young age of five, he was sent off to Galbadia to be raised by his traditional, yet unconventionally youthful grandfather. He had told Squall once, in a drunken stupor after the four of them had gone out to Balamb for a night, that for as long as he could remember, his grandfather would bring home a different woman every night and in the morning, before young Irvine would wake, she would be gone. Squall remembered scoffing at that, having finally realized where the cowboy got his playboy trait. There was more to it, however, that he and the rest of S4 eventually became aware of; growing up, Irvine never had a prominent female presence in his life. No sister, no aunt, no grandmother, not even a mother. Having suffered from a lack of female affection, he was now making up for it with nearly the entire female population of Garden.

As much as he would refuse to accept it, Squall knew that he and Seifer were more similar than either would admit. They both grew up similarly, with Squall's father, Laguna Loire, the President of Esthar and travel journalist extraordinaire, traveling around Gaia on business, and Seifer's parents busily occupying themselves with managing the omnipresent Almasy Group and playing with their rich toys, the Almasy Foundation for Troubled Youths being their favorite.

Squall was unsure if he should sit next to the clearly irritated man. What would he say? "Hey, Seifer, don't let it get you down, she's just a nobody"? He shook his head. That would just make it worse; it would mean that he, a member of the powerful S4, was humiliated by a nobody. But mostly, it sounded too much like something Zell would say, and if he could help it, Squall wouldn't be caught dead saying something like the hyperactive martial artist.

When Seifer's fiery green eyes darted at Squall, he knew he had to sit. Once he complied, an uncomfortable silence fell over the two men as Zell and Irvine's chatter flew over them. Though the two of them rarely got along, their relationship was a lot better than the one between the two blonds; hardly a moment would pass by without Seifer egging Zell on with an insult or two. Squall knew that, nonetheless, when it came down to it, they would stick up for each other. Much like the way that girl had stuck up for her fallen friend that afternoon.

Squall cleared his throat; Seifer had drifted back into what he knew to be murderous thoughts, and an idea had popped into the brunet's head. Why hadn't he thought of this sooner? It was ridiculous the way the four of them had utterly forgotten about it, but then again, it wasn't particularly a big deal to them. It was just Seifer who remained obsessively fixated on it.

"What, Puberty Boy?" Seifer growled, not feeling quite as amused as usual when he uttered his nickname for Squall.

"If you're that upset," Squall began, pausing when his companion interrupted by assuring him that he _was_ that upset, "then why don't we just handle this the way we usually do?"

The blond blinked blankly before narrowing his eyes into a confused glare.

"Tag her."

Seifer's eyes suddenly widened with a gleeful glint. "Fuck yes!" he cried, gathering the attention of Irvine and Zell, who had stolen one of the former's cupcakes and was chewing a bite with frosting stuck on his upper lip. "Didn't know you were hiding a brain in that empty skull!"

"Whatever." Squall crossed his arms, unamused.

Seifer, however, was feeling quite joyous as he returned to his dorm, the other three members of S4 watching him curiously. Not even the still present smell of vanilla on his hair could bring him down.

-x-

That morning, Selphie awoke feeling refreshed and extremely happy, despite that it was six in the morning. She was super proud of herself and the way she had handled that situation yesterday-she FINALLY gave that dumb blond what he had coming! She frowned as she curled her hair into her trademark flip; she knew that Seifer had much more than just an ice cream to the face coming, but under the circumstances, it was all she had available.

An hour and half later, Selphie slid open her door and bounced out into the hallway. Empty. Strange, seeing as at the same time yesterday her hall-mates were lazying around in the lounge, waiting to head off to class. She shrugged it off and when she turned to shut her door, spotted an unfamiliar red card taped onto it, right under her room number and name plate.

Thinking nothing of it, Selphie snatched the card off. Red, red, red. How unoriginal, she thought as she took sight of the skull and crossbones. It would have looked much better had they used yellow! Rolling her eyes at the stupid prank, she carelessly tossed the card to the ground. A much better prank would have been sticking duct tape to the floor right outside of her dorm so that when she stepped out, she'd get stuck to the floor! Geez, she sighed, how uncreative!

Humming a tune to herself, she skipped her way to class. Selphie couldn't wait to tell Instructor Trepe all about the ideas she had come up with to raise money for the festival! The one she was the most excited about was the bake sale; after seeing that unfortunate girl present that tyrant with a cake, she just knew that there must be more students who knew how to bake, and bake well at that.

As soon as she entered the classroom, she could tell something was off. The atmosphere was cold, uninviting. Tentatively, the brunette walked over to her desk, and instead, found an empty gap. She threw her gaze around the room-they were all staring, no, _leering_ at her. Selphie couldn't understand it; what had she done to deserve this kind of treatment?

"Selphie!" a voice from the hallway screamed.

She instantly recognized it; it was Rinoa's, and it sounded like she needed help! Selphie's first instinct was to quickly dash outside, realizing that because the raven-haired girl was connected to her, the students would give Rinoa the same harsh treatment they were giving her.

As soon as she pulled open the partially open door, a white powder was instantaneously dumped all over the top of her head, staining her face and her pristine uniform. A quick inspection of the powder told her that it was flour, and she scowled slightly; maybe some of these students were a little _too _enthusiastic about baking.

Selphie stepped outside and instantly saw Rinoa held in the clutches of a bigger male student she didn't recognize, with a throwing dagger, probably his weapon of choice, held against her throat. She felt her anger boiling inside her-they could bully her all they wanted, but when they involved one of her friends, then that was another matter entirely. She immediately rushed to her friend's side.

Rinoa was suddenly released from her captor. When Selphie looked at her questioningly, she turned away ashamedly and ran through the quickly forming crowd of classmates.

She had abandoned her. Rinoa had blatantly abandoned her, even after she had so valiantly stood up for her yesterday. Hurt, but neither surprised nor angry, Selphie glanced around the circle of students around her, and spotted her desecrated desk several feet away. Harsh words and cruel names such as 'wench' and 'outsider' were carved onto it. As her hand traced along the carved lines, her eyes stared into each haughty gaze that watched her.

"Well what are you guys waiting for?" Selphie shouted defiantly, her face supporting a shadow of her usual smile and her hands fisted on her hips as she assumed her usual perky self. "Go on! If you added eggs, you could make pancakes!"

The mob around her, to her surprise, started to pelt her with eggs. Once the first egg hit her square in the back, Selphie pushed her way through the crowd and ran down the hall. When she had said they could make pancakes, she hadn't thought they would have taken her seriously! As another egg cracked open against her shoulder, she ran faster and ducked around a corner.

-x-

Seifer smirked at the images on the screen. He, Squall, and Irvine remained in the suite's lounge, watching the results of their tagging Selphie on the television, as they did with each of their victims. It delighted him to torture this little brunette more than he would admit; _nobody_ touched his hair.

On the couch next to him, Squall shook his head. In the beginning, when they had first formed the S4, they had tagged people who disobeyed Garden rules as a form of punishment. Over time, it had mutated from the disciplining, noble arrangement into the sick, twisted version it was today. Now, they tagged anybody they deemed fit, from students who snuck out of Garden late at night to those that they chose out of pure pride. (He recalled sometime last term when Irvine had suggested they tag this girl who had flat out refused to go out with him and, after the treatment she endured, ended up transferring to Galbadia.)

Irvine, from his seat at the counter, chuckled. "She's a tough lil lady, I'll give 'er that much." He quickly glanced around the spacious room, taking note that the tattooed member's door was open and the room empty. "Where's Zell?"

Squall shrugged. He knew, though, that the short blond was most likely somewhere eating his daily dose of hotdogs. "This is usually the end," he stated, as Selphie ducked into a dark corner and out of sight.

In mock anguish, Irvine took his hat into his hands and held it over his heart, a phony expression of sincerity on his face. "Poor lil Selphie. I knew she wouldn't last long."

Finally tearing his eyes away from the screen, Seifer turned to the other two members of S4. "No," he corrected smugly, "It's over when she comes crawling on her hands and knees, begging for forgiveness."

Irvine and Squall exchanged unsure looks. They knew how stubborn, and even dunderheaded at times, Seifer could be.

"Just wait," Seifer continued. "I bet you she'll come in at any minute."

The three men turned their attention to the door.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing happened. Squall suppressed a smirk as he turned back to the other men. He hadn't expected anything anyway.

"You'll see. They always come crawling."

-x-

Selphie panted, trying desperately to catch her breath. She had finally lost the mob behind her! Closing her eyes and relaxing her weight against the railing behind her, she groaned tiredly. Those Garden students, with all the training they've had and were taking, could really run! Honestly, she hadn't expected them to put up such a dauntless chase! Luckily for her, Selphie ran much faster; being perky also meant having an abundant amount of stamina! She held her head up proudly. Those shallow Gardeners, as she came to call the blind followers of the SeeD 4 (or StupiD 4 as she liked to say), could SUCK it!

She shook her head, the loose flour powdering out of her hair and off her face. She didn't really know where else to run to, so she found herself at the same staircase she had met Zell on. When the hyper girl had arrived, she found it odd that it was usually empty aside for the blond.

"Selphie!" a familiar deep voice called.

"Zell!" she called back as he stopped in front of her, a plate of hotdogs in his hand. "What are you doing here?"

"This is my hotdog eating spot," he replied before taking a large bite. "But it'th godden a lot noisier hurr. I mide hafta fine another spah."

"Bummer," Selphie commented, sheepishly wiping some flour from her face. "It's my fault. I'm sorry, Zell!"

"Don't be!" he responded, offering her a hotdog at which she shook her head. "This wouldn't have happened if only I'd said something yesterday." In a self-centered rage Selphie had never seen before, Zell punched the wall with his free hand and froze in position. "Truth is, me and Seifer don't get along that well. He's just an asshole!"

"No kidding!" Selphie agreed, eyes widening at the depth of the hole in the wall when Zell removed his gloved fist. "But I'm not going to let him win! I'm gonna show that choco-poo who's boss!"

Laughing at her determined defiance, Zell pulled out of his pocket a silk, white handkerchief embroidered 'ZD' and wiped away the flour from her surprised face. Selphie was touched. If he weren't holding that tray of food and her uniform covered in the white powder, she would have pounced on him and given the martial artist a tight bear hug!

Giggling like the schoolgirl she was, Selphie took the cloth from his hand and peered up at his baby-blue eyes. "I'll clean this up and give it back to you as soon as I can!"

The sounds of clamoring students got louder, and a panicked look briefly flashed across Selphie's features. She glanced back at Zell, who supported a somewhat annoyed expression.

"I don't think I'll be coming back here," he told her, his expression now one of disappointment. "It's time to find another spot."

-x-

Clutching onto Zell's handkerchief, Selphie slowly opened the door to the classroom and peeked inside. Sighing in relief at the sight of the emptiness, she straightened up and walked inside. Stupid, stupid, how could she have been so utterly stupid? She almost laughed out loud at how reckless she had been that morning, especially to have left her bag in class!

As she approached her desk, which had been replaced and was shining with novelty, Selphie noticed a stuffed bear sitting next to her schoolbag. Excited yet apprehensive at the same time, she tentatively reached forward and picked up the doll. 'Press Here!' a little tag on its paw read. Well, Selphie had never been one to refuse the press of a button! As her thumb and forefinger pressed together against the tiny mechanism hidden in the paw, her tentative smile stretched into a full-fledged grin.

"I'm sorry, Selphie!" Rinoa's voice rang out from the bear. "I was a coward this morning. Please forgive me!"

"Of course I forgive you," Selphie replied to the voice-recorded message, hugging the bear close with one arm as she slung her bag over her shoulder with the other. "And don't worry, Rin-Rin," she continued, shooting the empty class another quick glance, "I'm a lot tougher than I look!"

-x-  
(To be continued.)

Hmm… I feel like the ending's so… cliched for this chapter, haha! And the beginning's like these big blocks of text. :


	5. Fixation

**Flower Garden  
**Rawr It's Kizami

Chapter Four: Fixation

Seifer chuckled devilishly. A week had past since he first tagged Selphie Tilmitt, and he had enjoyed every minute of it. The first day had been the best by far; the look on her face when that flour poured all over her head? PRICELESS. When the students pummeled her with eggs? HILARIOUS. When Zell had confessed to being chummy with her? WORTHLESS. He grimaced at the thought. The chicken-wuss had the balls to be friends with the girl they tagged? Seifer wondered what kind of bullshit went through Zell's mind everyday.

Squall stoically glanced around the suite at each of the S4. Irvine, lounging next to him on the couch, had his black cowboy hat tipped over his eyes. He rolled his eyes; Squall knew perfectly well that he wanted them to _believe _he was napping, but what he was actually doing was _thinking_. Just what the cowboy was thinking about, he had no idea. His eyes darted to Seifer, the picture of stereotypical evil-he was smirking mischievously and tapping his fingertips together impatiently. It was painfully obvious that he still expected Selphie to come crawling on her hands and knees begging. Zell… Squall blinked. Where was the overly enthusiastic youth?

Irvine stirred next to Squall and sat up. He tilted his hat back and nodded in greeting to Squall before looking at the trench coat garbed man at the counter. He shot Squall a questioning look to which the apathetic student nodded. "He's so stuck on Selphie," Irvine commented, smirking. "This is the longest anyone's ever lasted."

Suddenly interested, Squall exchanged glances with Irvine and called out to Seifer. When the unmoving statue made no move to answer, he promptly tossed a pillow at him with a low growl.

PUFF. The black fabric bounced off the side of Seifer's head and fell to the floor. He quickly turned to Squall with a deathly glare. "What the fuck?"

"She's the first to really stand up to us," Squall stated flatly, growing ever-so-slightly amused when Seifer's expression changed into one of stubborn recognition.

Scowling, Seifer turned his head away. He knew that Squall was right; before Selphie, no one had really stood up to them. They may have cursed them, ranted about them, and vented their anger in the form of destruction, but in the end, the S4 always ended up winning when they left. But not Selphie. She endured everything he threw at her and woke up the next morning ready to take whatever else he had.

"Whatever," he mumbled.

Squall grimaced with a slight downwards twitch of the lips. That was_ his_ line.

-x-

With a bounce in her step, Selphie cheerfully bounded down the hallway to the quad. Was that all the S4 had? She giggled as she skipped. That morning, the worst that had happened to her was her hot water cooling to a freezing temperature in the middle of her shower. _They're getting weak_, she thought in a singsongy tone.

Still feeling exuberant, she burst through the double doors, prepared to take on her task as Garden Festival Committee member super seriously! Her face immediately dropped; aside from being totally empty, the quad was absolutely littered with empty bottles, shards of paper, crushed soda cans, and hollow milk cartons. Darn! Just when she thought the S4 were getting soft, they presented her with another chore.

"Well fine!" Selphie exclaimed, grabbing one of the trash bins to tow around with her. "If you think I'm backing down, think again, Seify!" she shouted, shaking her fist in mock anger.

After about an hour and a half worth of cleaning, the petite girl couldn't care less if she never saw another soda can or milk carton EVER again! But when she thought about milk and cookies WITHOUT the milk, well… that idea just was not going to fly with Selphie Tilmitt! Sighing, she towed the rather large trash can back to its place and beamed at her handiwork. The quad was so much prettier when it was clean!

"Still here?" a deeply toned voice asked derisively from behind.

Selphie whirled around and found herself face to face with the one man who had wanted more than anything to make her life miserable for the past week. She instinctively straightened herself to make it seem she were taller than she really was as her arms crossed over her chest rebelliously. What did he want now? Was he going to knock over the trash can? Steal her Gummybears? Smear ice cream in her face?

"Of course I am!" she replied, putting on the cheeriest tone she could muster. The truth was, she was NOT fine; for the past several school days (and on one occasion, that Friday afternoon) she ducked around every corner, hid in every broom closet, and avoided any student other than Zell and Rinoa on her way to her dorm. She was sick and tired of having people throw eggs at her and shove her in the hallways!

"Well aren't you the little rebel?" Seifer commented sarcastically, taking slow steps toward her.

Selphie's mind reeled as she backed away from his advances, her eyes wide with panic. She was sure that since nothing he threw at her worked, the only thing left for him to do was kill her! Once she felt the cool metal of the stage behind her back, she knew she was trapped. Choco-poo! Unknowingly, she had willingly walked right into his clutches! And now he was going to kill her. Oh Hyne, she thought, clasping her hands in front of the hemline of her favorite yellow dress, please don't let Rinoa and Zell miss me too much. She slammed her eyes shut. If he was going to kill her with his gunblade, she sure as heck did not want to see it coming!

BOOM. She felt something slam on either side of her and let out an audible gasp. Was this how he was going to kill her? Blow her up? No! She wouldn't let him! If he blew her up, then the quad would be blown up, too! Selphie just could not allow that to happen, not after she had spent so long cleaning it up! Her eyes flew open.

Emerald seas melted into blue depths as she locked eyes with her chief tormentor. He was leaning in so close to her that she could feel his breath graze the tip of her nose. Her heart began to involuntarily beat faster and her breath came out ragged. He was WAY too close for comfort… but still, Selphie found herself unable to move, locked in his gaze. She gulped. His stare was unnerving, but she no longer felt the twang of fear.

They both stared at each other, Seifer too stubborn to look away first and Selphie frozen in the icy depths of his eyes. Their contest was finally broken when he leaned in closer. Finally snapped out of her trance, Selphie processed her current situation and threw her eyes around the quad wildly. Her heart was beating so fast, she was sure he could hear it, and her face was burning with such intensity. Was he going to kiss her? In the middle of the quad? After everything he had done to her? After the way he had treated her? A bigger question plagued her mind as her eyes automatically closed-Would she let him?

A snicker and a loud gasp.

Selphie snapped open her eyes. Seifer was no longer leaning over her, but was standing before her with one of his hands still rested on the stage against her back. That stupid smirk was back on his face and he was looking at the entrance. She followed his eyes and saw the rest of the S4 standing there; Squall was as stoic as ever, Irvine grinned knowingly and tipped his hat at her, and Zell, in his utter shock, had dropped his unfinished popsicle.

Squall cleared his throat uncomfortably as the three approached them. "I suppose that means it's over?" he asked Seifer.

Still smirking, the taller man ran a hand through his hair. "I'll count that as begging for forgiveness, just this once."

"You are such a jerk!" Selphie shouted, giving Seifer a hard shove that sent him back one step. It all registered in her head and made sense; he wasn't planning on kissing her! He was just toying with her! The majority of her anger was directed at herself for believing that even for a second!

Seifer let out a loud, raucous laugh and gave the top of her head a pat mockingly. "Did you think I was going to kiss you?"

Growing more flustered by the second, Selphie let out a frustrated groan and pushed past him, giving Zell an apologetic look as she walked by.

She suddenly felt a large hand wrap around her wrist and yank her back, turning her around in the process. What could he want now? Selphie looked up indignantly into the smug face of Seifer, who was still holding her wrist.

"You didn't answer my question," he told her as Zell glared at the side of his head.

Selphie pursed her lips and searched her mind for an answer. She didn't want to tell him the truth! Anything but! "Who would wanna kiss a beast like you?" she retorted, pulling her arm away from his grasp.

Irvine snickered and leaned over to Squall. "Seifer's sure got a way with the ladies," he whispered, chuckling as Selphie rushed out of the quad behind him.

"Almasy, you dick!" Zell shouted, his hands balled into fists at his sides.

"Jealous, Chicken-wuss?" Seifer quipped smugly.

Zell held his tongue. As much as he wanted to clock that smirk right off Seifer's smug face, he knew that it wouldn't be a wise decision. Instead, he turned on his heel and stormed out, nearly boiling over with rage.

Squall raised his eyebrows questioningly at Seifer. Now that he'd had his fun, what was that all about? In all the years that he'd known him, his perpetual rival had never done anything remotely similar to that stunt he had pulled just now. Perhaps even Seifer himself had misjudged, as they all had, his fixation on retaliating against the petite girl.

"What?" Seifer snapped roughly, irritated that Squall was still staring at him.

"You know," Irvine started, trying to break the tension between the other two with a grin and a wink, "I kinda like Selphie. She's spunky. And, I'm sure Zell wouldn't mind keepin' her around."

-x-

Selphie sat on the edge of her bed. She was still so angry at him! What right did he have to do that to her? Her heart still beat at a mile a minute and no matter how hard she tried, she just could not get the image of him leaning over her with that soft look in his eyes OUT of her head! And they hadn't even kissed!

Not that she wanted to! Selphie groaned and fell onto her back, covering her eyes with her hands. He just made her so, super-duper angry! She was even angrier at the fact that she was curious about what it would have been like had he kissed her! Ugh!

A soft knock at the door momentarily broke her out of her thoughts, but, much to her dismay, not for long and she really, really didn't want to see anyone right now. They knocked again, slightly more impatient.

"Who is it?" she called begrudgingly, her eyes never leaving the suddenly interesting ceiling.

"Instructor Trepe."

Selphie jumped to her feet immediately and leapt to open the door. If she had known it were the instructor sooner, she would have answered already! How embarrassing… first that _situation_ in the quad (which was bad enough by itself) and now she had managed to keep the advisor of the Garden Festival Committee waiting. Mega-bummer!

"What can I do for you, Instructor?" she asked in the liveliest tone she could put on.

"Is everything all right, Selphie?" Instructor Trepe queried, peering into the face of her newest student in a motherly way.

Selphie nodded her head as calmly as she could with all the thoughts swirling in her head. She didn't want to tell her what had happened in the quad, but mostly, she did not want anyone to know that she was still thinking about it. _Obsessing_ over it, even. "Yup, everything's fine!" she replied, despite her mind screaming 'NO.'

"Okay, then let's get down to business."

Although her instructor shrugged it off, Selphie could tell that she wasn't entirely convinced. She giggled at the motherly air she felt around Instructor Trepe, who shot her a small smile at the sound of the normally perky girl's giggle.

"Princeton has resigned from his position as President of the Garden Festival Committee." The professional atmosphere was back in the room in an instant. "That leaves you as the sole member of the committee."

"What?" Selphie exclaimed. She couldn't believe it! Sure, Princeton had seemed to be careless when it came to the committee, but she had never imagined him to be a QUITTER! What was she going to do now? She had no experience, but what she lacked in that area, she made up for in enthusiasm and determination. "So what does that mean for us then?"

"What it means for _you_," the instructor corrected, "is that you will have to either get more support, or do the preparations for the entire festival yourself."

Selphie nodded decidedly. If that was what it took to have the absolute BEST festival Balamb Garden had ever seen, then by Hyne, she was going to do it! "I'll put up flyers in the morning! And I was thinking of doing a bake sale to raise money. I noticed that our funds are…" She frowned. "…really, really low."

Instructor Trepe chuckled. "A bake sale in a school full of rich kids? You're better off asking for donations."

Selphie's emerald eyes twinkled excitedly at the prospect of her proposition. "Don't worry, Instructor! I've got an idea. This will definitely be the best bake sale EVER!"

-x-

(To be continued.)

Well there's the first romantic (I suppose) gesture! Also, this is where the 'Boys Over Flowers' thing technically ends, because after the whole quad cleaning thing is where I broke away from the drama. You see… in the drama, the main guy sends goons to kidnap her and take her to his house for a royal spa treatment. But I thought that was too… um, cliche. Plus, I thought I'd add a little almost kiss here!

As usual, let me know what you guys think! Constructive criticism is always accepted! (I don't mind what you tell me, even insults are helpful


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